Essay Example on Organizational Peaks & Valleys: Understanding Market Curves

Businesses and organizations assimilate a curve that is unique, depending on the culture and management. Sometimes, it reaches a point when an organization receives peak results, and maintenance of such effect is a difficult task. After achieving the highest and desired market share, which brings lucrative turnover, the organization starts to have a sinusoidal imbalance market curve. Such type of result is evident when a company experiences market stock exchange. Even though most companies tend to pass through a trend of the described manner, there are those who exhibit their downfall after struggling to stay in shape for quite some time. Some of the reasons why companies fall after an organization crisis include poor maintenance, human error, material failure, dishonesty, communication problems, and poor leadership. Developing countries are a type of organization that experiences an organization crisis due to poor leadership made evident by the rampant cases of corruption, greed, and nepotism. An example of a company that has experienced an organization crisis is Kodak, which was active in a span that saw three centuries. The following essay provides an analysis as to what caused the fall of the organization.

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Kodak saw its downfall in 2012. When a giant falls, all people are left to stare and wonder; how did it happen. The media was not quiet about the fact that such known photography would crumble. Kodak played a pivotal role in the photography industry. There were many stores written Kodak throughout the world, the baby boomers would know more of it. Gone are the days were people and family would allocate a day for photography. Digitalization has brought about a new era where we are just a blink away from taking a photo. Kodak was also a contributor to most of the cameras bought by the media. Many journalists wrote stores about why and how such a known company would come down to its knees. The Guardian wrote an article titled 'Kodak falls in the 'creative destruction of the digital age'. Also, Forbes, the world's most known wealthy rating magazine, published an article titled 'The Fall of Kodak: A Tale of Disruptive Technology and Bad Business'. Both these articles aimed at explaining how a company that saw three centuries fell in a nick of time (Kotter 2012).

When a company exists for a long time, it is expected that it has all the experience to outlive the changes along the way. The company was founded in 1880 (the 19th century) and was actively involved in the photography business all through the 20th century then experienced its downfall in 2012 (21st century). The business model suited its invention since it was during the 19th century when there were drastic inventions made in the photography world.

The use of photos in remote sensing technology than the military finding the need for photography in spying. The founding of the company was a comprehensive idea that dominated the photography industry. The use of photography grew exponentially, as many entities saw the need for photography. Many of the pictures taken by the company remain as archives of historical events. Also, the baby boomers age and early millennial period was an age where there was a change of technology since more advanced photographic techniques were designed.

Late 20th century and Early 21st century saw the people living in urban centers go to Kodak studios for a photo shoot. Family portrait and personal photographs were professionally taken by the stores opened up by the organization. Also, the Kodak films were so popular that when you take a photograph from the described period, there has to be a film at the back of the picture (Josephson 2018).

Even though the company experienced prosperity during the period of 1880-2012, the dawn of 2012 brought about its downfall when the organization filed for bankruptcy. One of the reasons why the company plunged into an abyss of financial collapse is the lack of dynamism and flexibility. Since the start of the company and the use of film-based photographs, the firm has tried to maintain its authenticity by ensuring they are still using the photograph methodology. In the effort of promoting the organizational culture, the organization failed to assimilate new strategies that would spearhead it to sustainability (Kotaniemi 2017).

The dawn of the digital era forced many organizations to take on the digital format of doing their activities. There were many opportunities laid by the technological advancements that were evidently lucrative. The management of the company only needed to make decisions that would direct the company on to taking on digital forms of photography-the lack of flexibility and dynamism in taking such steps led to the downfall of the organization (Nunan 2017).

Also, another reason that can be attributed to the failure of the organization is poor management and strategy. The virtue of flexibility is proportional to the way the management of the company will cooperate with the assimilation of trends in the market. The reason behind the management playing a key role is that the people making up the executive board are majorly the decision-makers. Their influence in an organization determines the direction to be taken. The major contributors to the well-being of the company have also negatively affected Kodak as the chief designer knew about the upcoming trends due to technological influence. The ignorance or neglect of digitalization has, in effect, drowned the company into a setback.

Instead of focusing on the issues that would spearhead the company to take on higher heights, the management team decided to invest billions of dollars into researching on incorporating cameras onto phones and other implements. Although the step seemed like a transformation to the digital era, the organization did not mass produce its cameras (digitally) for the public. Instead, Kodak found it hard to drop the film-based cameras (Gregory, Bridwell 2016).

The thought of being hesitant in moving with the change in technology and failing to innovate is the main source of the demise. It should hit the team hard enough that the digitalization is a transformation on an overhaul basis. There is no stone that would be left unturned. A company has to invest heavily in research projects that would see it be ahead of the competitors in the process of being flexible and assimilating new trends (Carrel, Ebner 2019). Kodak saw the capital investment needed for the digitalization of its cameras and had second thoughts. All other companies like Canon maneuvered through the turn, leaving Kodak staring in aghast.

Kodak lost almost 2.5billion dollars through bad investment. In 1988 the company tried to diversify its market by acquiring a chemical-based industry, Sterling. The move to buy such an industry seemed prudent and wise for the first time, but since there was little research done on the relation of the product and the raw material used by the organization, disaster struck.

Kodak had bought Sterling for about 5.1billlion dollars, the unerring ending of the deal after realizing dissimilarity in the chemical composition of the paper and desired agent led to Kodak selling Sterling for half the original buying price. The annual report of the organization as of 2007 plunged to 140million. Such figures showed how the company was declining and moving to bankruptcy declaration (Anthony 2016).

From the time the company realized that it had made a mistake, it tried to change the management. Its efforts turned out futile as it was already beyond repair. It soon fell and was bankrupt. Since then, the company has tried to come up with strategies that denote that they are back in business.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the reason why Kodak failed is because of the failure to innovate. All through the essay is evidently seen that flexibility is a vital skill that should be mastered by business entities to ensure there is progress in their doings. Kodak stuck on its organizational culture of having film-based pictures instead of taking the turn into the digital world. Failure to leave all habits results in future harm. Even primary science teaches people that there is a process of making work easier; the form of digitalization involved during the transition made the art of photography easier and sophisticated at the same time. Also, the management team of a company should be chosen with strategic care and also looking at the future. The organization culture should also not be a stumbling block towards achieving greater extents in acquiring more dominance in the market.

References

Anthony, S. (2016). Kodak's downfall wasn't about technology. Harvard Business Review, 15.

Carrel, A., & Ebner, N. (2019). Mind the Gap: Bringing Technology to the Mediation Table. J.Disp. Resol., 1.https://heinonline.org/holcgibin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/jdisres2019&section=20

Gregory, J., & Bridwell, H. (2016). Innovative disruption: Utilising brand to manage and drivechange. Journal of Brand Strategy, 5(2), 142-149.https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/hsp/jbs/2016/00000005/00000002/art00004

Josephson, K. (2018). Global Kodak: The Instamatic, Family Values, and Kodak's MarketingStrategy, 1950 (Doctoral dissertation, Department of History, Duke University).https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/17157/JosephsonHonorsThesis.pdf?sequence=1

Kotaniemi, A. (2017). Downfall of nokia. Zeszyty Studenckie "Nasze Studia", (8), 239-248.https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/naszestudia/article/view/3451

Kotter, J. (2012). Barriers to change: The real reason behind the Kodak downfall. Forbes,May, 2. http://krlretirees.homestead.com/News_Items/20120502_Barriers_to_Change-_The_Real_Reason_Behind_the_Kodak_Downfall_-_Forbes_.pdf

Nunan, D. (2017). Reflections on the future of the market research industry: is market researchhaving its 'Kodak moment'? International Journal of Market Research, 59(5), 553-555.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2501/IJMR-2017-043